From today's AFA Daily Report:
Facepalm.Into the Wild Blue Yonder: The Air Force leadership intends to announce USAF's new motto at the conclusion of the next Corona senior leadership summit in late September. The process of identifying a new motto began in February with airmen given the opportunity to voice their suggestions. Service officials are now close to having a list of 10 candidate mottos that airmen will get the chance to rack and stack in a survey. The top three selections will then be carried into the Corona in Colorado Springs, Colo. The leadership will then decide upon the winner. "The intent is to create a phrase that captures the spirit of the Air Force, is inspirational, and serves as an enduring rallying cry for airmen, from airmen," said Gen. Howie Chandler, USAF Vice Chief of Staff. (SAF/PA report by TSgt. Amaani Lyle)
That whirring sound you hear is Billy Mitchell, Jimmy Doolittle, Curt LeMay, and MANY others spinning in their graves. Can you IMAGINE Gen. LeMay uttering the words "The intent is to create a phrase that captures the spirit of the Air Force, is inspirational, and serves as an enduring rallying cry for airmen, from airmen..."? Me neither. I had a soft spot in my heart for LeMay's "We'll bomb the bastards back into the Stone Age."
Update: Speaking of LeMay (in an offhand way), today marks the 65th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. A short blurb from a piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
This week marks 65 years since the United States dropped the atomic bomb. On Aug. 6, 1945, President Harry Truman delivered a "rain of ruin" upon Hiroshima, Japan, with Nagasaki hit three days later, killing 100,000 to 200,000 people.
Truman's objective was to compel surrender from an intransigent enemy that refused to halt its naked aggression. The barbarous mentality of 1940s Japan was beyond belief. An entire nation had lost its mind, consumed by a ferocious militarism and hellbent on suicide. Facing such fanaticism, Truman felt no alternative but to use the bomb. As George C. Marshall put it, the Allies needed something extraordinary "to shock [the Japanese] into action." Nothing else was working. Japan was committed to a downward death spiral, with no end in sight.
Buck, having never served myself, it's more difficult for me to get a case of the reds like you guys that did.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, NO, I can not imagine LeMay even having that thought in his noggin.
Actually, I'm just commenting to subscribe. I'd like to read what other military men have to say.
My Father, also, had a particular fondness for that utterance of LeMay. He was not gung-ho concerning our involvement, but he was of the mind that IF you're going to war, then damn well go to war. I tend to agree.
ReplyDeleteOh dear lord. I kinda wish you hadn't spilled the beans about the "new USAF motto." Now I have a hope-and-change-related headache.
ReplyDeleteA few days ago I took visiting friends to the WWII Museum (where I used to be a docent) to see the new film, "Beyond All Boundaries." The movie, along with the Pacific Theater wing of the Museum, really put the War with Japan into perspective. That nation really did lose its collective mind.
Who do you suppose the president will send to apologize to the Japanese while he's busy tending to the unions in Chicago?
Moogie: No Apology. Thank The Deity At Hand.
ReplyDeleteJim: Your Dad and I are on the same page.
Andy: We'll see, eh?
I just ran across this cigar deal at Rustmeister's Alehousehttp://rustmeister.blogspot.com/2010/08/cigar-deal-alert.html. You might be interested.
ReplyDelete(I'm trying to embed the link -- if it doesn't work, you should still have the URL. You should write a "How to for Computer Dummies" book!)
Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Gabby Gabreski or Dick Bong wouldn't be spouting silly stuff like that either. I've always been partial to "World's Largest Distributor of MiG Parts" from the 555th Vietnam era.
ReplyDeleteLakenheath
Is
Bombing
Your
Ass
I'll have to see if I can find that old patch too.
When LeMay took over in the Pacific, he found bomber crews who wouldn't bomb during the day. They said it was suicide. Turns out they couldn't bomb very well at night either.
ReplyDeleteFinally LeMay threw off all the guns and high tech crap, and made a B-17 out of the B-29 and flew them in at low level. The Jet Stream was throwing their bombs off at high altitude.
LeMay told the men (he flew with them) that they will bomb during daylight, and many crews would die, but you can't win a war by plinking the enemy. You have to go in and kill them by the millions.
LeMay would have done well against Pakistan.
Moogie: Practice makes perfect. Thanks for the link, too!
ReplyDeleteAnon: I'd never seen the "Libya" thing before... thanks for that, as well as the rest.
The only consolation I get from this is the knowledge that the Navy is the only service circling the bowl...
ReplyDeleteWord Verification: phool
A good descriptor for the asshat who came up with the motto campaign?